Date of Birth: June 4 1852; † 11th December 1911
Place: Philadelphia, USA.
Profession: illustrator/Painter
click on the image to view the larger version
E. A. Abbey was an illustrator on the staff at Harpers Magazine in new York by the time he was 19 and, despite success, recognition and raises, he left to pursue a free-lance career at the age of 22. He later returned to Harpers only two years later in 1876, at the age of 24, where he was now salaried at $50 a week - (more than three times his original starting salary just 3 years earlier. 1876 was also the American Centennial and one of the many celebratory events was the Centennial Exhibition which brought a wide selection of European paintings to Philadelphia. Abbey was particulalrly inspired by the English contingent: Leighton, Watt, Boughton, and others. Already a proponent of drawing from life, the work of the Pre-Raphaelites inspired him further. This led to a journey to England in 1878 in the cause of accuracy in his published drawings for Herrick's Poems. Despite returning to the US for a short period, he was soon to return to England for the rest of his life.
Abbey exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1885, establishing his reputation first as a black and white artist and then in oils. His first oil painting at the Royal Academy was Mayday Morn, and he became ARA in 1896 on the strength of his 'Richard Duke of Gloucester and the Lady Anne' (from Shakespeare) in that year, and RA two years later. His subjects were largely chosen from the classics and history, as well as portraits.
In England his pen work, though always excellent, took on a new dimension. The sketching "rambles" he experienced in England with Alfred Parsons and George Boughton reinforced his belief in the value of drawing from the source. His ink drawings were still being engraved on wood, so some of the spontaneity was inevitably lost. Like Daniel Vierge, Abbey was quick to see the advantage of "process" reproduction of his pen drawings ("process" being any of several photographic processes that eliminated the engraver's reinterpretation). While in England he produced illustrations for many Harpers serials including Goldsmith's eponymous 'She Stoops to Conquer' (expensively published as a book in 1887), 'Old Songs' and 'Judith Shakespeare'. While in Europe, he met and was inspired by the great French and English artists of the day. Abbey often lived at his studio in Broadway and he and his good friend John Singer Sergeant would paint there together and convivially often. He was also friends with Alma-Tadema (whom his work is often said to resemble), DuMaurier, Whistler, and others. And though he was painting throughout, he still was using the pen as his primary artistic tool. This continuing facility and prowess with the pen led Harpers to assign him a series of illustrations for Shakespeare's comedies in 1887.
Abbey did however work in a variety of media, including as well as oil, watercolur and pen and ink, chalk, and pastel. He worked sometimes on the largest scale - his studio, Morgan Hall, was one of the largest private artist's studios in England, and contained a whole room of historical costumes. His magnum opus was a series of large pictures on the subject of the Quest for the Sangreal (1890-99) in Boston Public Library, America. In London, one important commission was a panel for the Royal Exchange.
Abbey can lay claim to being America's first great illustrator, and one of the first important tansatlantic artists of the modernist era. His work was inspirational and influential during his life and remains so today, most especially in America despite his many years in England. He died aged only 59 from pneumonia shortly before Christmas 1911.
Original research and words by kind permission of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. See http://www.bpib.com/abbey.htm for further reading.
Click here to return to the members' list